ED MILIBAND is no orator. The rhetorical flourishes that came so easy to Tony Blair sound clunky; the humour, forced; the “vision thing”, subdued, not soaring. But there was a sincerity and substance to the British Labour leader’s speech to the party conference in Liverpool that were refreshing. Whether the speech made him more electable or conjured up the image of a prime minister-in-waiting is another matter – probably not, that’s a longer term project. It was, though, a necessary laying of foundations.
This was no time for electoral promises. He’d made clear that he accepts that the Tory/Lib Dem coalition will probably last its full term to 2015, that Labour’s early hopes that it would crack quickly under internal pressure are no more. It was a time for introducing himself to party and country, and repositioning and defining Labour ideologically, and Miliband delivered an analysis described by the Guardian’s political editor as “the most radical ... offered by any Labour leader since 1945”.
It was not so much, however, what the Telegraph called “a notable shift to the left” as a clear articulation of social democratic centrism – no mention of “socialism”, but giving voice to the decent hard-working majority who he said were failed by a society in a “quiet crisis”. His targets, the bankers, “fast buck” merchants, “predators”, “vested interests” and “asset strippers”; not capitalism as such, but its excesses; not Thatcherism and the embrace by New Labour of much of its agenda, but a failure to engage with new values of mutuality rather than individualism.
“Britain is still a country for insiders,” he argued. “We have changed the fabric of our society but we did not ... change the values of our economy.” In some ways, though he would hate to admit it, the method was classic Blair/Clinton “triangulation”. And Miliband’s call for what he termed a “new bargain”, a contract of fairness between that hard-working majority and society, has some of the quality of prime minister David Cameron’s “big society” mantra. But it’s hardly a banner to rally to.
The latest ComRes Independent poll puts the Tories ahead of Labour for the first time in a year by 37 to 36 per cent. Asked if Miliband is a credible prime minister-in-waiting, 24 per cent agreed while 57 per cent disagreed. The Labour leader can take some comfort from another poll that finds Labour the least disliked of the two – 78 per cent say they would consider voting for it, with only 58 per cent, voting Tory. But it’s just as well that the election is not tomorrow.